Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Yes, we’re back from the HBA Autumn Conference in Norwich. As we suspect that Phil, the organiser is a reader, I had better say here and now that everything went very well. I thought that the company at dinner on Saturday night was particularly good.

The only moans I heard were about how hard it is to get to Norwich, and how hard it is to get home again. We consider ourselves lucky that although it took six and a half hours to travel each way, all the time was spent on decent roads at decent speeds, not stuck in traffic.

Now it’s all go for the spring conference in Northampton. I’m organiser this time so it had better be good.

Sadly for 2008, Bognor is Buggered. There are a number of niggles which when added up just mean it won’t work. Cash only at the bars, Friday dinner at 5pm (they’re used to kiddies) and 10 am check out on Sunday being just a few. So we’re off to take a look at the Queens in Leeds. We were there in 2004 and since then they’ve spent £10 million on the place. Provided one or two faults have been rectified we’re fairly confident. 2009 is likely to be back at the Hilton in Blackpool, and after gauging peoples reactions at the weekend we feel even more inclined to try for Prague in 2010.

On the home front we went to B & Q this afternoon. You know why don’t you.

Actually we were very good. We didn’t shout or make unreasonable demands.

They’re sending someone out to take a look and see whether it’s a manufacturing fault.

However, we have no faith whatsoever in that particular model of door (modern maple if you must know) and are likely to hold out for something else. Since the entire kitchen has been decorated to fit in, if they can’t get us something very close, they may need to redecorate the kitchen for us …

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Tonight while I was stirring the bolognaise sauce (should have been tacos shells but couldn’t be bothered to do them as they take too long…) something on one of the kitchen door caught my eye.

Yes you guessed it, one of the doors which was only replaced a couple of weeks ago has started to blister. If that wasn’t enough I ran my hand over the rest of them and found one of the replacement drawer fronts is blistered as well.

To say I’m not amused is an understatement. There’s nothing we can do about it now as we’re off early tomorrow morning for Norwich.

However come Tuesday afternoon I’ll be having a nice, quiet chat with the Manager of B&Q.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I was at my mams today and whilst we were sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee, I noticed three young girls (they couldn’t have been more than nine years old) standing next to the garden wall.

One of them kept looking up at the kitchen window then put her arm out. She did this for about five minutes when I twigged what she was doing.

My mam has a couple of berry bushes at the end of the garden and she was pulling off the berries.

There’s vertical blinds at the window so it’s easy to see out but quite difficult to see in. The little girl looked up again at the window and was about to pull off more berries when I mouthed ‘don’t even think about it’.

Monday, October 16, 2006

OK, we actually went to the CONFERENCE CENTRE at Butlins in Bognor Regis to see if we could swing a deal to hold a conference there.

It was an over 18’s Ibiza theme weekend. Loads of strange people popping various pills. I don’t really think we blended in. Probably people thought someone had brought their parents.

Actually the place is pretty good. It’s right on the sea front (they gave us a room with a sea view) and it’s easy to find. It’s even got it’s own brown tourist road signs. We would get the use of all the resort facilities, and for those of you who attend HBA conferences and fainted at Hilton bar prices, £9.95 for a bottle of wine.

I just wish it was a bit nearer. The round trip was just over 720 miles. Imagine travelling from our house to visit Jenny and Chris, then as much again. Our meeting was at three on Saturday so it was an early start, and a long haul back on Sunday.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Just looked at the date when we last blogged. I’m going to blame John for the lack of blogs as he was supposed to do one. Sorry dear….

So the saga of the kitchen doors continues. On Saturday John removed the damaged doors then we took them back to B&Q.

They’re not the most helpful of staff on the returns desk. The little man said he couldn’t help us so we’d have to find any member of staff on the shop floor and ask them to retrieve our doors from the warehouse.

They must have know we were coming as every time we saw someone they ‘vanished’. However we did manage to find one who wasn’t quick enough to disappear. We explained what she had to do and waited and waited and waited.

She couldn’t find them. We all went back to the desk where the little man said they were in the warehouse as he’s put them there last Sunday. Off she goes again.

She still can’t find them. The little man, her and another member of staff then have a debate about where they could be. She then goes off with the other member of staff to have another look.

Finally after waiting for nearly thirty minutes they find them.

The saga isn’t finished yet. While John was fitting them he noticed that they’ve given us two of the wrong doors….

So Sunday afternoon we were back at B&Q. Thankfully they had two of our kind in stock as I really would have pitied the person at the returns desk when the customer from Hell made an appearance. It wouldn’t have been pretty ! ! !

We’ve been plagued with problems since day one. Not all the doors were in stock so they had to be ordered and delivered to us along with the worktops. The earliest they could deliver was eight weeks. Delivery date arrived and no doors. It turns out they had forgotten to order them and it would take another three weeks to get them to us. We said stuff that and picked them up ourselves two days later.

I’m beginning to think changing the kitchen doors wasn’t such a good idea ! ! !